A Room Without January — Skinjo on Southdale Center

A Room Without January

Late at night, Skinjo leaves a brush across the rim of a water jar and thinks about a building with its own weather.

Southdale Center opened in Edina, Minnesota, in 1956. Designed by Victor Gruen for the Dayton Company, it gathered inward-facing shops around a central court beneath one roof. Outside, Minnesota could do what Minnesota did. Inside, people could move from shop to shop without meeting it.

Skinjo imagines the court in January, then in July. The same comfortable air against a wrist. No need to hurry across a freezing street; no heat rising through the soles of shoes. The body could loosen its small, constant negotiations with the day.

There is kindness in that. Cold is not merely picturesque. Heat can exhaust a person before an errand is done. A place to sit without bracing against the wind is a real gift. At this hour, alone beside the unfinished painting, Skinjo does not want to mistake discomfort for virtue.

Still, in the imagined court, something has become difficult to feel.

January and July might have different light beyond the doors, but the air on the skin would not tell their names. A sleeve would no longer need rolling up. The sudden warmth of a sheltered wall, so welcome after a bitter walk, would have no cold to answer.

Skinjo looks at the painting. The pale patch near its center seems warmer because of the blue beside it. Cover the blue, and the pale color remains, but its welcome changes.

Perhaps a steady indoor climate offers something like that bargain: relief, dependable and useful, with fewer contrasts by which to notice it. The seasons continue outside. Their arrival at the body becomes optional.

What is gained when weather stops at the door? Time, ease, a little freedom from endurance. What is lost? Not the seasons themselves, but some of the ordinary occasions for knowing where in the year we are.

Skinjo rinses the brush. Before turning out the lamp, she rests a hand against the window. The glass is cool; the room is warm. For a moment, both facts are there.